2017 was a great year for making money. A strong economy, the crypto boom, and a few other factors made it incredibly lucrative.

Of course, as the old saying goes, “it’s not what you earn. It’s what you keep.”

I kept it all.

In this article, I’ll explain how.

1. Figure Out What You Actually Want

Materialism is fueled by self-hatred.

People feel insecure, so they buy a new car or a nice watch. Their inadequacies manifest themselves by showing off that they’ve “made it” through the purchase of consumer goods.

This isn’t a new phenomenon either. Almost one hundred years ago, Will Rogers observed:

Too many people spend money they earned… to buy things they don’t want… to impress people that they don’t like.

Don’t fall into this trap.

The next time you want to make an expensive purchase, ask yourself why you’re really buying it. Is it because you really want it, or are you just trying to show off?

When you answer honestly, it’s usually the latter.

I know people making $14 an hour with Louis Vuitton purses or entry-level Rolexes. They only person they’ve fooled is themselves.

Doing what you want is usually less expensive than having to play catch up

2. Create A New Passive Income Opportunity Every Day

Last spring I read a terrific article from the Wall Street Playboys (link here). In it, they explained how increasing your recurring passive income by just $1 per day results in an extra $133,225 for life.

I really liked this idea, and decided to do something similar.

For 2017, I made a goal to create an extra $0.50 in recurring passive income each day.

This is a very small goal, and easily doable.

$0.50 per day is:

• Selling one $12 product through Amazon Affiliates every afternoon (4% commission).
• Writing a $2.99 Kindle eBook which sells one copy every four days.
• Generating six $30 sales commissions per year.
• Putting sidebar ads on a semi-popular blog.
• And so on (you get the idea)…

At first this wasn’t much.

But then things snowballed.

By the end of the year, all those little activities added to $100+ a day. About the same as having a million-dollar index fund.

You don’t always need a big idea to make money. Sometimes something as simple as writing a sales letter a day, publishing an SEO friendly product review, or having your own merchandise is all you need.